The mega-retailer is defending a proposed class action in Minnesota federal court over its ‘Target Clean’ marketing and label, which it has awarded "independently" to around 4,000 products in its stores. Consumer plaintiffs allege some offerings contain ingredients on the program's “formulated without” list, as well as other hazardous substances that ought not be in clean products. Pending litigation against Sephora stands to be influential.

FDA introduces Cosmetics Direct for registering manufacturing facilities and listing products, a little more than three months from registration deadlines set by new cosmetics regulations, and provides looks at the forms companies will need to submit. For now at least, the 29 December deadlines stand, notwithstanding stakeholder pressure for extensions or enforcement discretion.

EU Parliament and the Council are expected to start negotiations in October over proposed amendments to the Classification, Labeling and Packaging regulation, including a new approach that would require essential oils and other “more than one constituent substances” to be classified as CMR if they contain hazardous constituents above specified thresholds. Cosmetics Europe’s John Chave discusses.

Colgate-Palmolive Co. misleadingly claims its Colgate and Tom’s of Maine toothpaste tubes are recyclable when most end up in landfills, according to Truth in Advertising, Inc. The group is calling for greenwashing investigations by the US Federal Trade Commission and California and Connecticut attorneys general.

Automation through artificial intelligence, which saw significant progress during the COVID-19 pandemic amid labor shortages, is an area of focus for P&G as it continues work under its Supply Chain 3.0 initiative. The firm also is providing data analysis to retailers to encourage shelf simplification, company leadership says.

Cosmetics Europe says the European Commission’s proposed recast of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive places responsibility for micro-pollutants in urban wastewater squarely on the cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industries, ignoring other sources. The proposal would require Member States to provide for extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems to fund upgrades to wastewater treatment plants and administrative costs.